SUMMER 2016 ACRYLIC CLASS Project : Working the Steps Week 2/3

I am painting right over my value underpainting.

I started on my 16 by 20 canvas by putting down a value scale underpainting of my subject using grey, which is a mixture of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and white. To make the color darker I added more blue and burnt sienna; to make it lighter I added more white. Once I had my value underpainting down, I started working on the color starting with the sky.

Using gesso, ultramarine blue, a tiny touch of purple and a very little touch of the burnt sienna to grey the color, I started at the top of the canvas with my #10 flat bristle brush and working down  to create my sky. You want the upper part of the sky darker than the bottom part, you use more of the blue mixture at the top and as you work down the canvas you add more white or gesso. As I got close to the horizon I added just a little touch of alizarin crimson to the white and the blue on my brush to create a soft violet color starting from the horizon and working up this time and using a circular motion of my brush I created what looks like a bank of fog in the distance.

While the sky was still wet, I rinsed my brush and made a mixture for the distant peninsula, again using my ultramarine blue, a little touch of purple, sienna and enough white/gesso to create a color that was just a little bit darker than of value the sky, with that color I created the distant peninsula that is right along the horizon line. Use the flat edge of your brush (change to a smaller brush if you need to) to create the top edge of the peninsula pulling down, this creates a soft top edge, you do not want a hard edge in the distance.

I put the clouds in with a palette knife in this version.

My sky was still a little bit wet so I wanted to add some clouds Clouds can be done in a couple of ways: if you are attempting to use a palette knife you can use a palette knife to create the clouds or by using your flat bristle brush you can also create some clouds, just remember that clouds are water vapor that is bubbling and boiling in the atmosphere so to create the sense of your clouds billowing in the sky you need to use your brush or your palette knife in a circular type fashion to create the idea of clouds.

One of the things I didn't worry about was going over the lines or edges of my cliffs or the horizon line because I can do several things to fix it: I can either wipe out any paint that gets into and area I don’t want by using a damp paper towel or just let them dry and paint over it, it's one of the beauties of acrylic paintings that you can paint right over something if you don't like it, so don't worry about painting around just paint right over those lines and you will avoid getting a halo around your objects or hard lines.

Once my sky was dry then I started working on my distant water using my ultramarine blue and my hookers green with a little bit of yellow and white I created a soft green, distant color. This won't be the finished color but it is what I'm using for an underpainting. Be aware of the values that you have already laid down those should be your guidelines to the lightness or the darkness of your color, look at the color against the value you have down, squint your eyes and if they are close in value they will kind of disappear against each other, and then you know you have the correct value.

Using this blue green color, I painted this in along the horizon using my finger to soften the

edge, and in just behind the little point or peak in the foreground, then, as I moved into the foreground, I added touches of other colors as I came forward. I added more blue and more green in places, I also added touches of purple and white, all the time my brush strokes are horizontal, like flat bananas, to create the idea of water. As I came forward, I added still more color, sometimes more green, sometimes a little white or blue. Towards the shoreline I added touches of burnt sienna and yellow. To create a wave I used a darker blue green and with little upward curved strokes created the front of the wave.

While I was waiting for the ocean to dry I started working on the cliffs. When you are under painting you are painting a darker version of the final color, so with my burnt sienna, blue, purple and a touch of gesso, I created a soft cool brown tone, you can also use burnt umber instead of sienna, you want it to be a medium dark color for the under painting.

Starting at the edge of the cliff and pulling in towards bulk of the cliff, using the flat end of my bristle brush I created the edge of the cliff that is against the sky. Look at the reference photo, it's not a smooth edge there are rocks and boulders and loose dirt and all kinds of things going on with the edge of these cliffs so you want to create an uneven edge to your cliffs. You can pull in using the flat part of your bristle brush or to create little outcroppings using the corner and pulling in this is just for the edge, on the interior of the cliff wall you will be doing what's called a scumbling stroke which are strokes that go in every direction, however, because these cliffs are made of sedimentary type rock you want your strokes to slightly angled down top to bottom.

As you work your way closer to the darker area you can add more blue, purple and sienna but no white to create the darker cave area. Don't be afraid to add other colors like a little orange or yellow even green and touches of white, just be sure that you have made a lot of different strokes as you blend your colors because those strokes become the texture of your rocks, remember you are not painting it like a wall, painted like a pile of rocks which is what it is. Where the cave is the darkest, your color should be a cool, charcoal grey meaning not quite a black color and should be on the bluish side.

On the closer cliff wall you want to have a little bit lighter color to go against the dark of the other cliff wall where there's a cave, use the same colors the blue, sienna or umber, and little touch of purple but add a little touch of orange or yellow and a little touch of white to create a lighter color. The stroke is the same, the application is the same to create the outside edge: with either the flat end of your brush or with the corner to create the little ins and outs where rocks are poking out or where they have fallen off. Use this color all the way down that front edge and out to the little point then as you work back into the shadows and more of umber or sienna or blue even purple, all the time you are scumbling and creating different shapes with your strokes.

For the very dark color that is on the backside of the little point and along the front edge of that half you will use blue and umber or sienna with purple but no white to create a very dark color. Use this dark color for the back side of the point and around to the front and along the edge of the water. Remember that that water's edge is made up of stones and pebbles so it is uneven, it's not a nice smooth arc, water comes in further and some places and out further in others so make a very uneven edge.

For the sand path in the corner and the little patch that is just above the water's edge you will start with yellow, gesso/white, a little burnt sienna and a little, tiny touch of purple as your base to make it lighter you will add some more gesso/white and yellow, add more sienna and purple to make it darker. You will be creating the eroded edges of what used to be a path or road, again your stroke is going to be very important these edges are not hard, sharp edges but rounded and soft, so your strokes need to be rounded to create that soft edge. If you want to add a little bit of purple and sienna to part of the lighter color to have as a shadowed color ready as you work and you can wet into wet to blend as you go. Start with the lighter color when it goes into the shadow colors pick up some of the darker color for the shadows and work back and forth to create a soft eroded edge.

The patch of sand that is showing in all the rocks and pebbles is the darker shadow color you used for the eroded edges you just painted. Be sure that you strokes angle down towards the water so the sand looks a bit inclined.

The other rocks that are in the foreground can be left grey if you still have some of your underpainting visible or we can paint them in later at this point it isn't necessary to do this please try to have your painting is close to this stage as possible we will continue to work on this in our next class.

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Because I didn’t get the blogs up last week this will constitute 2 weeks of blogs, lucky for me we had a bunch of people out and the people who were there had a lot to catch up on so there really wasn’t a demo though I did redo my clouds – I really didn’t like them. Basically I just took some of the original sky colors – gesso, blue a touch or sienna and purple, mostly gesso and blue – and painted out my sky making it darker at the top and adding gesso as I worked down to lighten the color. When that was done, I went back in while the sky was still wet and re did my clouds with my brush not the knife, I liked them better. That was all I did so if you missed last week, you didn’t miss much.

I re-did my sky and put the clouds in with my brush. I like
them better now.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

SUMMER 2016 ACRYLIC CLASS  – Project: Working the Steps Week 1

This class project is to give you some insight into how you can become a better painter and to create better work habits. The best artists have their own methods but they are very similar in that they will collect reference material, do sketches, values and color studies, take photos and notes plus anything else to prepare themselves to get down to the final painting. A good painting doesn’t just pop out of the end of a brush or a piece of chalk, it is the accumulation of knowledge and study.

I usually provide a photo and a drawing for the class so we can get started on a painting. Students are hungry to get into the “meat” of the project but they rarely are interested in the “bones”. What I present in class has taken many hours of looking through images of my own or from things I have clipped out of papers and magazines or search out on the Internet, and that is just the beginning.

Once I have my reference material I then have to come up with a design for my classes. If I am using one of my photos I may just do an outline of what I already have for the project but if I am working from some other source or maybe my reference isn’t all that exciting and needs to have other elements included, I need to do what is called a “Composite” that is the final design is made from more than one source of reference material.

If I am doing a composite, I may have 2 or more reference photos that I am working with to put together to create my final design and this takes time. I may do several simple pencil sketches – some looking more like stick figures than a drawing – and then I sometimes will do a detailed pencil drawing to see how everything looks together and/or I may make a preliminary line drawing and do a small study in watercolor or acrylic. Still, nothing is set in stone at this point. If I am not satisfied with my results it is literally back to the drawing board.

By the time I get into class I am very familiar with my subject and then I paint it again 4 times during class sessions. Sometimes I do get tired of the subject but each time I do the paintings in class I learn something especially how the subject works in the different mediums. You are always learning when you paint so get out of the notion that you do one masterpiece then move on to the next, it just doesn’t work like that for most serious artists.

This project is from a plein air class I have been taking. You will notice that there is a big difference between the photo I took and the study I did. Photographs have their limitations and if you are going to work from them, you are going to need to understand these limitations. First off, photos do not give you the exact colors that were actually there. The human eye sees a lot more color that any camera can so the colors which are in my watercolor are more accurate than what you see in the photo because of the limitations of the camera and this goes for all cameras no matter the expense.

When you are working from these photos, it is best to use the real image to work out your drawing and my watercolor to suggest what colors to use in your painting.

I started with a charcoal sketch I did on the top part of my canvas then that I worked into a value study using by mixing a dark gray with gesso, for the white, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. To make the gray lighter, I add gesso to make it darker I add more blue and sienna, keeping it on the blue side. A dark almost black can be made with the blue and sienna alone or blue and burnt umber, no white.

Value is more important than the color so I want to get it correct in my mind before working on my final painting. This is where having a value scale is handy especially when you are learning. Most art stores should have them or you can make your own using ink and water on white paper.

 

I did this at home and will be adding color in class.

You do not need to do detail but you do need to see the different values, squinting at the reference photos will help when looking for values.

We may have time to do another project and this time you will have the choice of doing your own or another one I provide, either way, I want you to try and work the steps, if you will be working on your own project, get good reference material and work on sketches, I can help and answer questions in class.

We covered a lot of ground, do the best you can but keep painting and I will see you in class.

 

This is the value study I did in class.